What happens if aliens are real and land on Earth? What does it mean for home insurance if aliens or UFOs damage your home?

Insurance companies try really hard to exclude things they don’t want to pay for. The problem with their approach is most policies cover everything – known as an “open perils” policy – EXCEPT what they specifically exclude.

This means if the insurer isn’t creative enough to exclude it…they pay!

This is why it’s critical to understand the exclusions in your policy. Because if aliens show up tomorrow, how else would you know if you had the right insurance?

No Broad Alien Exclusion

The good news for you is there is no broad exclusion covering aliens. Insurers exclude damage caused by birds or rats, but they neglect to mention aliens!

That’s a good sign, right? Mostly, but it’s important to look for those gray areas.

Insurance excludes damage by birds, rodents, vermin, insects, and some animals (mainly pets). What if our alien friends looked like a bird or an insect? Could they then exclude any losses? Hmm, this sounds like one for the lawyers!

Our best guess is an alien who has antennae and looks “insect-like” is not biologically an insect! We would have to capture some alien DNA and compare it to earthly insects and see if they are a match. 

If there is no match, you are looking good! If there is a match, then there would probably be some litigation about whether the insect exclusion only referred to insects that originated on Earth or if it also applied to extraterrestrial insects with laser eyes and razor sharp claws.

This is not a piece of fiction. Believe it or not, this is how the real world proceedings would play out! While the aliens shoot lasers at you, some insurance lawyer would be before a judge arguing they are an insect, so it’s not covered!

But What If It's An Alien War?

While the insurers may not be able to exclude all damage caused by aliens, there are other exclusions to consider. Most prominent of these is the war exclusion.

If aliens incinerated your home with their spaceship blasters, insurance will not pay because losses caused by war are excluded.

On the other hand…can we be sure we are at war with the aliens? What if we can’t communicate with them, so they can’t declare their plans to take us over?

Or maybe on their planet, vaporizing buildings is a sport and they didn’t realize we would take it as an act of war? If they stopped after we objected, there is technically no war. Or maybe the aliens thought our homes were a food source?  

There are so many possible reasons they may want to damage our homes. We can’t assume they are all due to war. You might still have a valid insurance claim!

More Exclusions to Know

There are a few other common exclusions that apply where aliens could cause an excluded loss. If the aliens cut the power to the neighborhood, most resulting losses are typically excluded. (However, if they cut only your power, it would be covered!)

If the aliens create a flood or a sewer backup, that will be excluded just like any other cause of uncovered water damage. Oh, and if the aliens manipulate the earth’s crust to cause an earthquake, that is excluded just like any naturally occurring quake!

When Insurance Has To Pay

This is the part you really care about! When can you make the insurance company pay for the impact of an alien invasion! First, don’t call it an invasion. Remember, then the war exclusion applies!

So let’s say they’re friendly aliens who come in peace! But while they may be friendly, they also don’t understand our customs and can be a little clumsy.

• What if one of their spaceships accidentally clips your chimney and takes it down? Covered!

• What if they look at your home, forget to turn off their laser beam eyes, and the laser breaks a window? Covered!

• What if an alien got mad at you and set your home on fire? Being mad is not an act of war, so…Covered!

• What if you invite one over to dinner and their slimy, acidic skin dissolves your kitchen table? Covered!

• What if they break in and steal your jewelry? Definitely covered!

• What if they steal your fence because they need to burn the wood to fuel their spaceship? Covered!

• What if the aliens are herbivores and in the process of eating the leaves off your tree, knock it over? Questionable. If the tree falls over without hitting any property, not covered. If it damages a structure, then covered!

• What if their spaceship runs into your parked car? As long as you have uninsured motorist coverage, probably covered….though we’ll have to ask the lawyers if a spaceship driver is considered a “motorist”!

What if, after the aliens arrive, a giant rat tears apart my attic? Will insurance pay? Normally, rodent damage isn’t covered, but, during an alien panic, you may be able to convince your insurers the aliens did it (if you can live with your dishonesty). 

Peace of Mind

While insurance can’t protect you from aliens, especially aliens hell bent to destroy the human race, it can protect your assets. 

Because insurance companies never thought to exclude aliens, they should cover most damage other than the exclusions outlined above.That means there is one less thing to be scared about when the aliens arrive!